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Technological Terrors
The massive J'rathi Worldship is pulsing slowly, its tentacles moving slightly to allow better dispersion of the nebula gasses. In high orbit of the planet are the two Dreadnaughts, with small swarms of fighters around each of them. A sequence of brilliant blue flashes indicate the arrival of a fleet of capital ships - wedge-shaped star destroyers and Nebula-class cruisers, primarily - from the Galactic Empire. The menacing invasion force begins to close on the J'rathi worldship and its tap-world. As the massive fleet begins approaching Ornath, the J'rathi dreadnaughts angle away from the planet and begin gliding towards the invasion fleet. All along the worldship, power signatures register announcing the activation of the station's defenses. "Imperial Fleet, this world has been claimed by the J'rathi. Please leave or else we will fire upon you." comes a strong voice from the Worldship. "Thank you for confirming your identity," comes the baritone reply, backed by a hissing rebreather. "Soon, your claim on this world will be irrelevant." And, as if on cue, another vessel arrives from hyperspace: A huge metallic orb with an equatorial trench and a massive segmented disc in the upper hemisphere. The Galactic Empire's newest weapon of terror, the Death Star, rotates slowly as it plots a course toward Ornath. As the Death Star appears in realspace, reinforcements from the J'rathi side appear. Shimmering into view appear three dozen Djalin-class cruisers, with weapons and shields charged and raised. "Once more I warn you. Turn back, we do not want to harm your vessels." "Nor will you," replies Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith, broadcasting from the largest of the star destroyers - a Super Star Destroyer identified as the Executor. "By order of Emperor Palpatine, ruler of the Galactic Empire, the J'rathi are targeted for extermination. Let it begin." With that, TIE fighters begin to spill from the bellies of the star destroyers, swarming toward Ornath and the worldship in advance of the star destroyers and the Death Star, which continues to close in on the planet. The J'rathi dreadnoughts converge and form up side-by-side, moving back towards the cylinder while the Djalin-class cruisers form up in groups of three. Each group begins heading towards various different Star Destroyers, while a swarm of various different insect-like J'rathi torpedoes begin swarming out to greet the invading fleet. The J'rathi fighters move out to greet the TIEs slowly, their ion turrets all moving in sync to face forward. The TIE fighters move swiftly, making HAROOOOOO! noises as the squadrons zoom past the vanguard of the star destroyer fleet and close to intercept distance with the J'rathi snub fighters. Their cannons are warmed up and ready to blast at the alien vessels. The J'rathi fighters and TIE fighters meet after a few moments of formation flying, and immediately a swirling melee ensues. The steady blue beams of Pulse Cannons slice easily through the thin armor panelling, spilling out human pilots and electrical sparks are met by the staccato bright green laser cannons of the TIE Fighters pouring onto many fighters. Some TIEs establish a pursuit with the slower fighters only to find that the turreted ion cannons are swift enough to land shots on pursuers, and go spinning out into space. Other J'rathi fighters discover that the Empire's massive numbers outweigh the technological advantage, and many fighters spill their contents out into space. "Surrender," Darth Vader intones over the comm frequency to the J'rathi, "and you may be allowed to live in service to the Emperor. Continue to resist, and you will cease to be." The next wave of TIE fighters swoops in toward the J'rathi defenders, twin-ion engines shrieking as the cannons fire lethal bolts of crimson energy. The leading edge of the star destroyer fleet lumbers along behind the fighters, getting closer to Ornath. Behind them, the great wedge of the Executor lurks. And, behind the Executor but continuing its inexorable path toward the worldship, is the Death Star battle station. "Retreat." comes the response from the J'rathi commander. "You cannot win this battle." it says as fighters begin spewing out from the Worldship to join their comrades. More TIEs and J'rathi fighters are broken apart in the melee, and the large fleet of Djalin-class Cruisers continue their moving towards the Star Destroyers. As the J'rathi ships near the Imperial Fleet, they once again fade into darkness as their cloaking devices activate. Djalik comes hustling out of his particular engineering booth, moving towards one of the pulse cannon turrets. There is a J'Rathi already manning the station, but Djalik harumphs and tugs on its shoulder. "Here, let me at that. Go find something else to do," he commands. And, being an engineer while the other J'Rathi is not, the other J'rathi submits, though it doesn't look to happy about it. Djalik seats himself in the gun-station, and reads his montiors. With a slight grin, he takes the controls and starts shooting at targets. Kritn arrives onto the bridge of the J'rathi worldship from the main deck. The J'rathi takes a quick look around, calculating in his mind what is happening. "Who commands, and how may Kritn be of service?" it says simply. Djalik doesn't seem to sense the impending danger of the worldship as he gleefully fires shots at whatever targets present themselves. He clucks to himself, making all sorts of random comments as he fires, such as, "Oo, now wasn't that pretty. Hrm, if I'd fired just for degrees to the left, there wouldn't have been any debris. I wonder ... is this weapon firing at maximum capacity?" After this last comment, Djalik becomes distracted from the fight, stopping to examine the console he is sitting at. When a warning klaxxon bleeps, however, he is quickly drawn back to firing. The J'rathi fighters move back to join the swarm of fighters emerging from the Worldship, as the torpedoes finally reach their targets. Intelligently dodging laser fire, the torpedoes latch onto the hulls of a dozen different Frigates and Cruisers. A full half-dozen latch onto the hull of one of the ISDs that make up the main strike fleet, and the hulls of those vessels begin to look alive with all the mechanical torpedoes crawling around on their hull, the powerful sensors searching out any major power source. On the bridge of the Worldship, Djalin looks towards Kritn. "You are a ship designer. I suggest taking notes on that." it says, pointing a multi-jointed finger towards the Super Star Destroyer Executor. "And prepare the reflective shielding." it says to the bridge crew. The Imperials apparently take notice of the strange robotic torpedoes creeping along the hulls of their vessels, as the surviving TIE fighters swing around to investigate and, if possible, eradicate. Meanwhile, the heavy weaponry of the forward star destroyers begin pounding at the J'rathi fighters. Kritn bobs its head in an afirming manner before taking a spot near the back of the bridge that has a clear view of one of the viewscreens that is currently set to the Super Star Destroyer. Very literally, it takes out some sort of datapad and begins manipulating it. Its large blue eyes dart from the screen to the datapad. The torpedoes cease their crawling as the TIEs swing around, detonating on each ship as they find power conduits, and within moments the frigates, cruisers, and Star Destroyers each fall silent, crippled by the explosions. The J'rathi fighters continue their rapid retreat, although not rapid enough to avoid taking heavy fire by the massed turbolaser batteries. With each volley more fighters fall, until they reach the protective umbrella of the Dreadnoughts massive cannons. After a short blue buildup at the front of the dreadnoughts, each ship fires four large blue beams towards a different Star Destroyer, the beams popping through the heavy shielding and carving deeply into the bridges. Behind the Star Destroyers, the Djalin-class cruisers uncloak and strafe the shielding of another three Star Destroyers. Djalik frowns as the smaller targets have left its firing arc, and the larger ones aren't in range. "Well now what?" it mutters to itself, folding its arms across its chest as it sits and waits for something to do. VaderPrime watches in inexplicable hissing silence aboard the Executor as the torpedoes decimate several vessels and then the J'rathi cruisers uncloak and begin their own attack. His implacable mask and visor soak in the visuals of dead or crippled star destroyers and cruisers spiraling away from the conflict, precious air spilling from the ruptured hulls in a crystalline haze. Some of his clones commanded those vessels, but he seems untouched by sorrow at the loss. He turns his attention toward the nearest Imperial comm officer and says, "Inform the Death Star - they may fire when ready." Djalik hops out of the now ineffective weapons station and hustles towards the bridge. More to see, more to review, or to do. It scurries into the bridge rather quickly, quickly finding someone elses station to watch. "What is going on? What are we shooting at next? There are some modifications we should make to the pulse cannons ...." Djalin's clear face seems to stretch into a grin as the Death Star's main weapon begins to charge up. "Activate the shield." it says to an engineer, eyes flicking from the viewscreen to a display. The cruisers recloak after their strafing, allowing the turbolaser batteries to fire into space uselessly, hitting nothing. The Dreadnoughts, however, begin taking massive amounts of turbolaser fire as they prepare to fire once again, this time splitting their fire between a number of smaller vessels, easily splitting Nebulon-Bs into two. The Death Star aims its firing disc at Ornath, and in quick succession, beams of green energy lance outward from the edges of the disc. The beams intersect to form a single superlaser blast that cuts through a gap between the Imperial warships as they clear the way for the planet-killing salvo. The beam then burns toward Ornath. Djalik's eyes light up as the Death Star starts shooting. It turns and fairly dashes towards the nearest window. "What ... is ... /that/?" he exclaims, utter amazement in his voice. He's apparently too fascinated to be scared. The entire planet becomes engulfed in a soft green glow emitting from the Worldship, moments before the Death Star's superlaser burns towards it. As the laser and the glow meet, an unexpected thing happens.. The powerful laser is reflected out into space harmlessly. For a few seconds, the laser maintains it's infinite path, and then fades into blackness again. "You cannot win. Leave us now." says Djalin's cool voice as another, smaller swarm of torpedoes is released from the Worldship's massive hangars. "Impressive," VaderPrime intones against the hissing of his rebreather, watching as the superlaser blast is deflected by the worldship's shielding mechanism. "Most impressive." He turns toward the sunken bay where the navigation crew works and orders: "Full scans of their vessel and torpedoes while the fleet returns to Coruscant. We have what the Emperor required." The duty officer below replies, "Yes, Lord Vader." The last straggling TIE fighters return to the star destroyer bays as the fleet banks around to depart Ornath with the Death Star. Djalik's jaw drops as it watches the laser fire off into space. "That's ... that power! What was it?" it gasps. Then, it hears Djalin's orders and turns around, pleading. "No, no! Don't send them away yet! Have them shoot again. I want to see that again!" he says. Djalin turns to those assembled on the Bridge. "Let this serve as a reminder. The greatest weapon is defensive." it says simply. "Have our fleet regroup, we have work to do." Category:Reach of the Empire Logs